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Beautiful Books: Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things

So my last blogpost was a serious one where I was kind of just ranting about Feelings™ and I had no chill. But this week we’re back to me being an idiot with gifs, so I’m happy! I say with gifs, but Blogger won't insert them, so we're gifless for this week, sadly. So just me being an idiot. I'm sure that's exactly the same.

I haven’t posted since January (except for last week and I didn’t feel like I could ramble about this in that post) and that’s because I’m the worst. But I did have my reasons and originally I didn’t intend to start back at blogging until I had quite a few posts written and ready. That didn’t happen ‘cause of the last post which my mum made me post.

But anyway, I am back now, so hopefully everything should go sort of smoothly. Once again, I shall aim at getting a post out every week, though it’ll be Saturdays from now on, but I am not making promises, because that basically dares me to forget. So you can expect regular posts, but don’t expect too hard.

Moving on from my absolute failures as a blogger, today we’re talking about my NaNoWriMo novel, called Ghosts, Doughnuts and Other Related Things. I'm linking up with Beautiful Books over on Paper Fury and Further Up and Further In for this post.

What inspired the idea for your novel, and how long have you had the idea?

I first got the idea from a pin on Pinterest, I'm pretty sure. I can't remember which one though. I've had the idea for years, which accounts for not remembering. Either way, I remember wanting to write a kind of Ghostbustery story which involved friendly ghosts, so that's what I'm doing!

Describe what your novel is about!

My novel is a contemporary paranormal fantasy about a girl called Reinette who discovers there's a ghost in her home. As any of us would, she responds by befriending him then setting out on an adventure to help or hunt ghosts, along with said ghost and her best friend, the highly skeptical Barnabas. Think kind of Gravity Falls-esque in terms of humour and ridiculous things happening with no explanation.

What is your book’s aesthetic? Use words or photos or whatever you like!

Reinette: The pink-haired, cloud-cuckoolander main character. She's a little too energetic, but her heart's always in the right place.

Barnabas: Reinette's best friend. Barnabas really doesn't want to be here. He's highly skeptical of the whole thing because it doesn't fit in with SCIENCE!

Jem: The ghost boy. Gentle and good-natured, Jem was murdered fifty years before the story starts. The search for his murderer forms one of the main plot threads of the story.

How do you prepare to write? (Outline, research, stocking up on chocolate, howling, etc.?)

Howling, mostly.
But in all seriousness, I tend to put more effort than normal into planning out a NaNo story. Mostly because it avoids me having to slow down to think about my plot or to research things. I'm planning on making a post next week about preparing for NaNoWriMo, so you'll get more explanation then.

What are you most looking forward to about this novel?

I'm so excited to write this story in general, I've been planning it for ages. But I think the thing I'm most excited for is the characters. I love these three characters so much.

List 3 things about your novel’s setting.

It's set in modern-day Britain.

There are mermaids in the River Mersey.

There are minotaurs in Sherwood Forest.

What’s your character’s goal and who (or what) stands in the way?

Their main goal is to help Jem find his murderer and help/defeat ghosts and other miscellaneous monsters along the way. The particularly evil ghosts/monsters are standing in the way of the second goal. And the first goal is prevented by Jem himself, who won't tell them who killed him - he does know though.

How does your protagonist change by the end of the novel?

*whispers* I don't know...

Look, this is kind of planned out, but it's not that planned out. I'm just going to kind of let the characters do what they do and refine it in editing.

What are your book’s themes? How do you want readers to feel when the story is over?

Once again, I'm not really sure. I want my readers to feel happy and satisfied, but beyond that, I don't know. I'll figure it out while I'm writing.

And that's today's post done! After this month is finished, during November, I'm going to be posting snippets from this story and updates on my progress, so watch out for that if you're interested.

Comments

Wow, nice update to your blog! :D Your NaNoWrimo story sounds awesome, it kind of reminds me of a film I hear called A Ghost Story which came out this year.I'm also doing one this year, though I'm kind of keeping it a surprise so it's simply called "Sequel." More will be revealed soon when the time's right....

THIS SOUNDS AMAZING!! I absolutely love ghost stories...they're like my ultimate favourites and I can never find enough.😍😍 And I love how quirky and fun your title is and Jem sounds like a precious little cinnamon ghost and YAY for Britain!!

Thanks so much for linking up with us and I hope you have fun with NaNo!

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About Me

Hi, I'm Esther and I'm a writer. I enjoy hot chocolate, reading and hiding away from human contact. I'm basically a hermit. At the moment, I have several novels on the go, but my main one is Asteria, a science-fiction novel set in space. I write posts for my blog with no consistency whatsoever. I also like to pretend I'm smart, when I'm really not.

I'm a fan of both Marvel and DC, but must admit to preferring DC a little bit more. I also enjoy reading a whole bunch. My favourite books, currently, are The Book Thief and Strange the Dreamer. I tend to go for quite dark books and I tend to write quite dark books, so everything works out well.

I also fail at social media, so if you're hoping I'll actually do anything other than occasionally blog then you will be sorely disappointed.